A2 Smart Nutrition

Fresh, nutritious milk is a critical component for strong development throughout life. One major Australian dairy company pioneers the scientific understanding milk so more people can enjoy the nutritional goodness that only comes from real and natural milk across a range of products including fresh milk, infant milk formula, and milk powder. This client approached TSI to assist with developing a fortified children’s milk powder specifically for the China market.

Service

Client

Discover, Innovate, Scale

The a2 Milk Company

Year

Geography

2018

Australia, China, South Korea

Understanding New Consumer Thinking

To get to the optimal positioning and marketing mix, TSI ran a series of quantitative studies across four key Chinese markets. From Shanghai and Nanjing in the east, to Chengdu in the west and Qingdao in the north, we wanted to gain a better understanding of consumer reactions to a new children’s formula. This is especially important in China, where a decade-old milk scandal still taints consumer purchasing behaviours.

We also expanded on this research to understand and estimate sources of volume, then forecasting out first-year sales for the company. This would include direct sales of the product itself, new products, product lines, and the potential for disruption of competitor lines. Diagnostic information was also gathered to provide direction for further concept and product development.

From Source of Volume

to Size of Prize

Our research helped to settle a few key questions for this client.

First, TSI was able to map out the impact of this new product line on key competitors, including the depth to which they would take away from their market share.

Secondly, we forecasted out potential sales of this new product across its first year. To achieve this, TSI ran over 100,000 simulations to gauge the probable distribution of sales.

Lastly, TSI identified the optimal category, consumer, and marketing mix for this new product line. This included store placement, target markets and purchase intents, as well as the language in which to present the product.